Faculty Biographies

Tom Grites has been directly involved in and a student of the academic advising process in higher education for over 30 years. Information and materials from his presentations at national conferences and from his publications have been used by advisors in a variety of institutions. He has served as a consultant and faculty development workshop leader to over 100 different campuses, and he has addressed numerous high school and community groups in his home state. He was instrumental in forming the National Academic Advising Association and served as its second President for two terms.

His research and writing have linked the importance of academic advising to such seemingly diverse areas as admissions, general education, high school counseling, economic profits, ethics, and collective bargaining. His landmark publication, Academic Advising: Getting Us through the Eighties, served as a basis for the review of advising programs on many campuses for many years. Developmental Academic Advising, of which he was a co-author, was used as the "standard text" for advising programs and advisor training programs for many years. He has authored more than 50 journal articles, position statements, book chapters, and consultant reports, and he has delivered over 70 conference presentations.

Grites has conducted academic advising program assessments on many campuses. He has given a variety of conference presentations on the assessment of academic advising, including an annual workshop on assessing the economic value of an academic advising program.

In addition to his work in academic advising, Grites has worked in college housing programs on three campuses; he regularly teaches a general methods course in teacher education; he has also taught a Freshman Seminar course, a Basic Skills course in Critical Thinking, a graduate course on "Developmental Academic Advising" at Teacher's College, Columbia University, and most recently a Transfer Student Seminar that is modeled on the freshman seminar concept. He has also served on his local Board of Education for 20 years.

Grites is a native of Danville, Illinois and earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Illinois State University. His doctoral work was completed at the University of Maryland. Both these institutions have awarded him their Distinguished Alumni Awards.

Peggy Jordan is a Professor of Psychology at Oklahoma City Community College. She spent six years as a professional advisor with OCCC, where she designed and coordinated a training program for faculty advisors, initiated a First Year Success Scholarship, created a program called "College Cafe" to take advising information into the classroom, and was selected NACADA's Outstanding Advising Publication Award winner in 2000 for a "New Student Newsletter." She has just been awarded NACADA's 2007 Outstanding Advising Award in the Faculty Advising category.

She is currently serving as NACADA's Two-Year Colleges Commission Chair and serves on NACADA's Publication Advisory Board and Annual Conference Advisory Board. Dr. Jordan authored a chapter, "Building Effective Communication Through Listening, Interviewing and Referral" in the NACADA monograph, The New Advisor Guidebook: Mastering the Art of Academic Advising Through the First Year And Beyond, Pat Folsom, Editor (2007). She is also co-editor for an upcoming NACADA monograph on "Special Populations." She has a "Voice of Experience" and an "Exemplary Practices: Oklahoma City Community College" section in the 2003 NACADA Monograph, Advisor Training . Her article, "Advising College Students in the 21st Century" was published in the NACADA Journal , Fall, 2000. She was co-chair for the 2005 Region VII Conference in Oklahoma City and was on the Region VII steering committee. She has presented numerous workshops at NACADA regional and national conferences, as well as OACADA state conferences.

Dr. Jordan earned her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Oklahoma State University. For the first twenty years of her professional career, she worked in various state agencies and a private practice. After years of teaching clients coping skills and strategies to enhance motivation and feelings of worth, Dr. Jordan returned to the college campus, with a strong belief that teaching and advising students offers them the greatest opportunities for empowerment.

Rich Robbins received his B.A. in Psychology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, his M.A. in General Experimental Psychology from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from University of Nevada, Reno. Rich served as a full-time psychology/behavioral sciences faculty member for four years, followed by a move into higher education administration and adjunct teaching for the past 10 years - first as Coordinator of Academic Advising at Washburn University for five years, then as Director of the Undergraduate Academic Services Center at West Virginia University for three years, and now as Director of Engineering Advising at Cornell University since 2004. His initial exposure to academic advising came as a Graduate Assistant Advisor while at West Chester University. Rich has developed advising programs at two separate institutions and headed advising programs at four institutions, receiving the NACADA/ACT Outstanding Institutional Advising Award in 1998 and the NACADA Research Grant Award in 1999 as well as several campus advising awards. He has served as Chair of the Kansas Academic Advising Network, Chair of the NACADA Research Committee, and has been a member of numerous NACADA task forces, advisory boards, and committees. He is currently a member of the NACADA Board of Directors, the Editorial Board for the NACADA Journal, serves as chair of the NACADA Summer Institute Advisory Board, and is a member of the NACADA Consultants' Bureau. Rich previously served as the elected NACADA Administrative Division Representative and member of the NACADA Council. He was a facilitator at the first two NACADA Administrators' Institutes, co-chaired the first NACADA Assessment Seminar in 2004 and served as a facilitator at the 2005, 2006, and 2007Assessment Institutes as well as a faculty member at the 2006 NACADA Summer Institute. Rich has over 80 presentations at professional conferences and numerous NACADA Journal book reviews and articles. In 2004 he served as editor for the NACADA monograph Giving Advice to Students: A Road Map for College Professionals, and is co-author of the 2005 NACADA CD Guide to Assessment in Academic Advising. Rich also serves as a manuscript reviewer for the peer-reviewed Journal of College Student Retention and regularly acts as a professional reviewer for textbooks in various areas of psychology. His teaching interests include introductory psychology, health psychology, medical sociology, research methodology, and parapsychology, while his areas of emphasis in academic advising include evaluation and assessment, retention, undecided students, high-achieving students, research methodology, and grant writing. In addition to his academic advising roles, he is also a lecturer in the Psychology Department at Ithaca College. And, by the way, he is a black belt in taekwondo.

Dr. Nancy S. King is Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Services and Professor of English at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. Prior to this position, Dr. King was Associate Vice President in Student Affairs, Director of the CAPS Center, and the coordinator of the New Student Experience program at KSU. Dr. King holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Mercer University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Georgia State University.

Dr. King is active in numerous professional organizations and has held leadership roles in many associations. She served as president for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) from 1997-1999. Other leadership roles in NACADA include: Public College Representative (1987-89), Chair, 1992 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and Vice President for Member Services (1993-95). She has published in the field of academic advising and freshmen seminar programs and serves frequently as a consultant to colleges and universities in the area of advising, freshmen-year-experience programs, and student success. Dr. King has made presentations on these topics at state, regional, national and international conferences. She has also published and presented on the topic of collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs. She is a contributing author in Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook published by Jossey-Bass in 2000. Dr. King has been a fellow in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' Academic Leadership Academy and is listed in Who's Who in American Education.

At Kennesaw State, Dr. King has served on and chaired many committees including Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee. Dr. King is the chartering advisor of the KSU chapter of the Golden Key International Honour Society and is a member of a National Advisory Board for Golden Key. She was selected the Outstanding Administrator at Kennesaw State in 1998 and received the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award from the Student Government Association in 1992. Dr. King was the recipient of the 1994 Betty L. Siegel Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Leadership, and Service, presented by the KSU Alumni Association.

Dr. King has received numerous national awards. In 1998 she was awarded the first-ever Outstanding Advisor of the Year award at the Golden Key International Conference; in 1999 she received the Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate award from the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina Houghton Mifflin Company; in 2000 she received the Virginia N. Gordon Award for Excellence in the Field of Advising from the National Academic Advising Association; and in 2001 she received the Service to NACADA Award from the National Academic Advising Association. Dr. King was honored as a Woman of Achievement by the Northwest Georgia YWCA in 2006.

Patricia (Patti) Griffin is the interim chair of Communication Studies at Fort Hays State University. She will return to her duties as director of the Academic Advising and career Exploration Center at Fort Hays State University.

Her responsibilities include oversight of the center, the university academic probation and suspension program, and implementation and delivery of the university-wide program for academic advising professional development. She is heavily involved with the international education management group, parent and student orientation programs and the council for institutional effectiveness. She serves as a peer reviewer for the North Central Association Higher Learning Commission.

Griffin became a NACADA member in 1997 when attending her first national conference in Kansas City, MO. In 2003, she was elected to become the chair for NACADA Region VII. Patti also serves on the Summer Institute planning committee and has been involved in serving the NACADA finance committee. She has presented at numerous NACADA national and regional conferences. Other NACADA experiences include serving as a regional conference co-chair, completion of the 1998 and 2004 Summer Institute and most recently completion of the 2007 NACADA Data Driven Decision Making Seminar.

Patti has called Kansas her home for the past 28 years and earned her bachelor's and master's in Communication at Fort Hays State University (1987 and 1991), then completed her Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction and Policy of Higher Education from Kansas State University in 1996.

Charlie L. Nutt is Associate Director of the National Academic Advising Association. Prior to this position, he was Vice President for Student Development Services at Coastal Georgia Community College for nine years and Assistant Professor of English/Director of Advisement and Orientation for six years. He received his A.A. from Brunswick College, B.S.Ed. from the University of Georgia, M.Ed. and Ed.D in Higher Educational Leadership from Georgia Southern University.

Nutt has had vast experience in education. He has taught English in grades 9-12, served as a department chair and assistant principal in a high school, served as Director of Development and Admission at a private K-12 institution, and for the past nine years has been a teacher and administrator at Coastal Georgia Community College. He originated the college advisement center and orientation program that was awarded a Certificate of Merit by NACADA in 1995. He served as conference chair for the 1994 Region IV Regional Conference and served on the NACADA Executive Board as Region IV Representative for 1994-1996 and as Chair of the Two-Year College Commission 1996-99. He has served on the NACADA Awards Committee for five years and on several other ad hoc committees as appointed by the President. He was the national conference chair for the NACADA 2000 Conference in Orlando and served as President-Elect of NACADA for 2001-2002. He was the 2001 recipient of the NACADA Pacesetter Award. He also authored a chapter in the NACADA/Jossey-Bass Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook published in Fall 2000.

Nutt has presented at numerous state, regional, national, and international conferences on the topics of student success, academic advising, institutional effectiveness and assessment, retention, and advisor training and development.